Eric Byler

Eric Byler (born January 15, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter and political activist. He identifies as hapa biracial, born to a Chinese American mother and a white American father. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/27/AR2006122701793.html Byler background discussed, on Washington Post online] by Teresa Wiltz - 12/28/06] He grew up in Virginia, Hawaii (where he attended Moanalua High School), and California. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1994, majoring in film. He currently lives in Gainesville, Virginia.

Filmmaker

Byler's senior thesis film, "Kenji's Faith", premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1995, went on to win six film festival awards, and was a regional finalist in the Student Academy Awards.

His first feature film, "Charlotte Sometimes" was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards in 2003, including the John Cassavetes Award for Best Feature under $500,000, and a Best Supporting Actress award for Jacqueline Kim. The film was called "Fascinating and illuminating" by film critic Roger Ebert, and won the Audience Award at South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), the Special Jury Award at the Florida Film Festival, and the Best Dramatic Feature at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. The film was distributed theatrically by Visionbox Media and Small Planet Pictures before being released on DVD.

Byler's second feature is the "Charlotte Sometimes" quasi-sequel, "TRE" which was the winner of the Special Jury Award at the 2007 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. "TRE" was distributed in theaters and on DVD (May 6, 2008) by Cinema Libre Studio.

His third feature, "Americanese", is an adaptation of Shawn Wong's seminal Asian American novel, "American Knees." It won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at SXSW, in addition to a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Cast, which includes Chris Tashima, Allison Sie, Joan Chen and Kelly Hu. The film will be released by IFC First Take in 2009. He also directed the PBS / ITVS Television pilot, "My Life Disoriented".

He is currently in post-production, along with filmmakers Annabel Park and Jeff Man, on 9500Liberty, a documentary about the illegal immigration battle in Northern Virginia.

He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America. [ [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117933164.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 Tre Review - Read Variety's Analysis Of The Movie Tre ] ] [ [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060330/REVIEWS/603300302 Americanese :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews ] ] [ [http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-charlotte20jun20,0,683151.story 'Charlotte Sometimes' - MOVIE REVIEW - Los Angeles Times - calendarlive.com ] ] [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2003/08/22/AR2005033115904.html A Love Story in a New Light ] ] [ [http://www.youtube.com/9500Liberty YouTube - 9500Liberty's Channel ] ]

Political activist

Byler has been active in past elections, often volunteering for canvassing efforts, as he did for John Kerry in 2004.

In fall of 2006, Byler's primary focus became the Virginia U.S. Senate election. In response to incumbent Sen. George Allen's use of the term "Macaca" on the campaign trail, referring to a South Asian American student from the University of Virginia, Byler and others rallied the Asian American community together, forming a group calling themselves "Real Virginians for Webb" to back Allen's democratic opponent, Jim Webb. Their efforts can be credited as a significant contributing factor to Webb's eventual victory, where he won the final vote count by a margin of less than 9,000. In 2007, Byler volunteered and created YouTube videos for the "121 Coalition" a national grassroots organization that helped to pass House Resolution 121, urging the Japanese government to acknowledge and apologize for military rape camps during WWII. The resolution passed on July 30, 2007.

During the 2008 presidential primary, Byler co-directed a music video of a song written and performed by artist Andres Useche, entitled "Si Se Puede Cambiar", in support of Sen. Barack Obama. The video was released on YouTube on February 22, 2008. Also that month, Byler established a political action blog on AsianWeek.com entitled Through Our Lens, co-authored by filmmaker Annabel Park. [ [http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/12/huge_apa_turnou.php The Democratic Party | The Democratic Party | Huge APA Turnout for Webb ] ] [http://news.asianweek.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=3151e146e345e441294133bfddbbce9d&this_category_id=169] [ [https://www.aaldef.org/article.php?article_id=215 AALDEF: What's New - "Asian-American Votes Influenced Many Important Races" ] ] [http://www.weta.org/theintersection/show_archive_episode.php?show_e_id=91]

Filmmography

*"Kenji's Faith" (1994) student thesis
*"charlotte sometimes" (2003) — director, writer, producer, editor
*"My Life Disoriented" (2006) — director, producer
*"TRE" (2008) — director, writer
*"Americanese" (2008) — director, writer, editor

References

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/9500Liberty 9500Liberty (in production)]
* [http://www.trethemovie.com Tre (2008)]
*
* [http://www.myspace.com/ericbyler Eric Byler on MySpace]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ky8Hvq-F0U "Si Se Puede Cambiar" Obama Music Video on YouTube]
* [http://throughourlens.asianweek.com/ Through Our Lens Political Blog on AsianWeek.com]

Film criticism

* [http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-charlotte20jun20,0,683151.story Los Angeles Times review of Charlotte Sometimes (2003)]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2003/08/22/AR2005033115904.html Washington Post review of Charlotte Sometimes (2003)]
* [http://www.charlottesometimesthemovie.com/ebert.html Roger Ebert review of Charlotte Sometimes (2003)]
* [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117933164.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 Variety review of Tre (2007)]
* [http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=17208&reviewer=389 eFilmCritic review of "Tre" (2007)]
* [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060330/REVIEWS/603300302 Roger Ebert review of Americanese (2008)]